COLUMBUS – He has stalked Urban Meyer, held snake-feeding parties on the eve of Michigan games, stealthily stood toe-to-block "O" cap on the sidelines with a coaching legend and spent the last 17 years inside what he calls "the most famous stadium in the world" working strictly for peanuts, popcorn and any other half-off concessions.

So, yes, it would be fair to say from the time he was an awestruck lad with a player's eye view of the action. Bucyrus native Trevor Zahara has gone to extreme lengths demonstrating his love and passion for everything Ohio State football.

The 66-year-old's latest display of devotion is in the form of a self-published, 332-page, soft-bound book called "Confessions of an OSU Usher." It includes dozens of stories, anecdotes and acknowledgments from ushers, ticket-takers (better known as "Redcoats"), fans, band members, the aforementioned current head coach and his predecessors Earle Bruce, John Cooper and Jim Tressel.

For those who just like to look at the pictures, there's 140 of those in color, too.

The project was three years in the making and proved to be as much a labor of love as the triathlons he competed in for 10 years.

"It's like I told my wife Patti," Zahara said. "If I knew I was going to write a book I would have paid more attention in English 101 while I was at Ohio State!"

What, you thought Zahara graduated from Oberlin? His wife, brother, daughter Lara and two sons-in-law also graduated from Ohio State. Lara's twin sister Megan is the black sheep of the family. She went to Ohio University.

Retired after 31 years with Xerox, Zahara and his wife, also from Bucyrus, spend four days a week at their home in Westerville babysitting their four grandchildren, ranging in age from 4 to six months. Proving it's never too early to influence college choices, the grandkids have already had their picture taken together in OSU garb.

Zahara was in junior high when he remembers attending his first Ohio State game with his cousin.

"We ended up standing behind the bench, behind Woody Hayes," Zahara said. "We just walked down there like we owned the place. I could have touched Woody, we were that close."

Trevor Zahara, the usher, would probably have spotted Trevor Zahara, the star-struck fan straying a little too close to the action, and steered him back to his seat. It would be tough for Zahara to ever top the view he had that day, but 17 years of observing all the home game pomp and pageantry from his portal (8) in B Deck has been priceless.

"There's nothing like being at an Ohio State game and seeing all the things the average fan doesn't get to see," Zahara said. "Because we have to be there four hours before kickoff, we get to see the coaches walk in with the team. The hair on the back of my neck just stands up when I see that and the band coming in.

"I can remember the first time Urban walked in with the team. Every other coach ahead of him, when they came over from the Skull Session (a pre-game pep rally held inside St. John Arena), they would have the team walk along the track toward the locker room. When Urban came in with the team, he went straight down the middle of the field. There were no fans there yet, but all the ushers went crazy because we knew we were seeing a new tradition. Urban walked straight down the middle of the field like he owned the place.

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Trevor Zahara takes a photograph of a man and his daughter inside Ohio Stadium. It’s just one of many services the 66-year-old Zahara has provided in his 17 years as a volunteer usher at Ohio Stadium.
(Photo11:
Dave Polcyn/Gannett Ohio
)

"In another tradition, Urban takes the whole team over to where the Boy Scout ushers are at the south end, in the corner near the tunnel (leading to the locker room) and they all get to high-five Urban and members of the team."

Meyer proved more elusive when Zahara attempted to get feedback from him for his book. Unsuccessful in trying to set up an appointment with Meyer, Zahara was at least able to learn where he could catch him while he was taking his daily lunchtime constitutional.

So Zahara basically set up a stakeout outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

"On his walk from his office, I explained what I was doing," Zahara said. "I had a short conversation with him and he sent me a nice note about the ushers. Persistence paid off!"

Like the football team, the ushers have some of their own traditions. Every spring, several meet for lunch and swap stories about life inside the 'Shoe. When head usher Jim Norris died in 2011, Zahara mentioned to Norris' replacement how he wished someone had documented some of Norris' stories.

His boss' response: Why don't you start?

So Zahara began a journal and requested entries at the usher's meetings held on game days. Before long, the journal turned into a book format with more than 600 pages of submissions and hundreds of photographs.

One of Zahara's favorite stories in the book was shared by an usher who has worked games since 1957:

A woman came up to him sobbing. 'You've got to help me.' She had dropped her purse, filled with all of her credit cards and I.D. and $300 cash in the Porta-Potty. The usher wondered, 'Is this part of my job responsibility?' Her husband was handicapped and couldn't help, so the usher had sympathy for the woman. He found a pair of gloves and fished out most of the purse's contents.

During their conversation, the usher eventually got around to asking the woman where she was from.

"Michigan."

"Oh," he said, "that kind of explains it."

"At the next game," Zahara said, "all of the other ushers and the portal chief gave him a Porta-Potty plaque."

Another of Zahara's favorite anecdotes was about Bo Schembechler, the cantankerous and iconic head coach at Michigan, who had coached under Woody Hayes at Ohio State.

"After Bo was done coaching, he was always in the press box for the Ohio State games (in Columbus)," Zahara said. "The walls were pretty thin. Whenever Michigan did something, Bo would bang on the wall and yell, 'Whaddaya think about that, you SOBs!' Our guys got tired of that, so whenever Ohio State did something, they'd bang on the wall and yell, 'Take that, you old SOB!'"

Schembechler passed away one day before the epic No.1 vs. No. 2 showdown between Ohio State and Michigan in 2006. Zahara ranks that 42-39 OSU victory as one of the greatest games he's ever witnessed as an usher, along with the 44-38 triple overtime win over Philip Rivers and North Carolina State in 2003 and the improbable, Kenny Guiton-to-the-rescue, 29-22 win over Purdue in overtime in 2012.

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Trevor Zahara, in his 17th season as a volunteer usher, shows fans to their seats inside Ohio Stadium.
(Photo11:
Dave Polcyn/News Journal
)

There is a section of the book, entitled "One Usher's Recollections," devoted to Zahara's cherished memories. It will be hard to miss the picture of Zahara as an OSU student with his pet boa constrictor named "Rainboa."

"We were partying the night before the Michigan game my senior year at our (student) house," Zahara said. "It was a snake-feeding party where you get a pet rat and throw him in (the tank). At the end of the evening, after I had a few too many, I got Rainboa out and he wasn't too happy. He got me on the side of the face and neck. A couple of his teeth broke off in my jaw, so I had to go to the emergency room.

"The doctor said it wasn't too bright to handle the snake when you're partying hearty. But as I was leaving he said, 'Go Bucks! Beat Michigan!'"

In his 17 years of working in B-8, the last five as portal chief, Zahara has never witnessed a fight in his section, but there has been a tragedy. One man died died during a game when medics couldn't revive him.

"His wife came to the next game and subsequent games after that," Zahara said. "She said that would have been his preference, to go out that way at the stadium. She said he would have never forgiven her if she hadn't gone to the games after that. So we all walked up and gave her our condolences."

Being an usher has also given Zahara a chance to interact with band members since the ushers hold their meetings in the band room, which is in B Deck.

"The first thing you notice is how young they are and how dedicated they are," he said. "One thing I didn't know, and there is a picture of this in the book, one of the guys turned his hat upside down and in the brim of his hat were Buckeye leaves. Band members (like the players) get Buckeye leaves for doing extraordinary things"

Zahara has had chances to move from B-8, but has stayed put out of respect for RJ Friday, the man who hand-picked him for the crew. Friday and Zahara worked together for 25 years at Xerox. Friday was the portal chief when he offered Zahara a job. And Friday's father had been portal chief before his son, dating back to 1937.

When knee replacement surgery forced Friday to step down as portal chief, Zahara took over.

"I've been with two of the same guys 17 years and another guy 14 years," he said, "so we're sort of a team."

Zahara has been overwhelmed by the response to the book. There were 42 people signed up prior to his slide presentation and book signing at the Westerville Public Library. Another 85 people have signed up for a wine-and-cheese tasting/book signing event at the Bryce Eck Activity Center in Upper Arlington from 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct.23.

On Oct. 25, Zahara will return home to Bucyrus for a book signing from 4 to 6 p.m. at Norman's Niche. "Confessions of an OSU Usher" can also be purchased for $19.95 on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.

"Ohio State has meant everything to me," Zahara said. "I wouldn't have graduated, I wouldn't have had the job I had at Xerox for 31 years, I wouldn't have been in the military (he obtained rank of 1st Lieutenant in the Army and served in Pusan Korea during the Vietnam conflict) and had a chance to hone myself and become a better man. And the result of that is my family.

"I owe a lot to Ohio State. To give back (as a volunteer usher) means everything to me."